X Factor Day 2 – What The Critics Are Saying

I kicked off my recap of The X Factor‘s series premiere with a multiple choice question, so it seems somehow fitting to also begin our discussion of its sophomore outing by asking everyone to get out their No. 2 pencils and grapple with this mind-bender: A mega-hyped talent competition is airing its second episode, and 50 minutes in, the most entertaining aspect is a cellphone ad starring the show’s ornery British judge: How many minutes until you change the channel, or else find yourself mesmerized by a filthy, half-deflated basketball that undoubtedly deserves the Emmy for Outstanding Prop in a Reality Series Backstory? (TVLine)

‘The X Factor’ recap: Miami Bleat

Oof. The Miami and Dallas audition rounds of The X Factor brought us a few solid acts — and one stunning one — and an utterly ridiculous amount of screentime dedicated to losers and fools. Have I been suckered into recapping America’s Got Talent? (EOnline)

That summarizes the entire collection of outstanding performances from the numbing two-night, four-hour initial dose of “The X Factor,” Simon Cowell’s heavily hyped new singing competition show on Fox. Both of these memorable-in-a-good-way moments were by women, and both came during Thursday night’s show. Sure was a long wait. (NY Times)

Judges grumble as duds take the ‘X Factor’ stage

After a debut that was mostly focused on the positive, we got two hours of mostly underwhelming and downright horrifying acts. Those promos for FX’s upcoming “American Horror Story?” Some of the performances could be on the soundtrack, starting with the first singer to take the stage in Miami. That would be Ashley Sansone, the starving-artist-but-not-really-starving-because-she-had-two-hot-dogs-and-chatted-nervously-for-what-seemed-like-hour. (The Clicker)

‘The X Factor’ recap: Miami and Dallas prove un-Xciting

After “The X Factor’s” impressive debut Wednesday night, the second back-to-back audition episode proved to be a huge disappointment, featuring an endless parade of delusional losers and talent-free wannabes marching before the bemused judges. (Los Angeles)

Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted.I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!

Even Lyndsey is criticizing! She was all glowing after the first episode. I think the fact that she went to the big glossy premiere night may have caused her to have on rose colored glasses!

Elliegrll

I wonder what does Simon think about all of the AGT comparisons. Does he see that as a good thing, given that shows ratings, or does he realize that nobody takes AGT seriously, and that it is not appointment tv.

Grammie Kari

Just received notification that Nigel Lythgoe retweeted one of my tweets:

@dizzyfeet I am just wondering how many people watched only a small part of the show? It was boring with 2 many bad singers. YAWN..

This tweet went out to 80,219 followers.

paperheart

the irony of Nigel criticizing a show for focusing on to many bad singers shouldn’t be lost on anyone. It’s one of my main complaints about American Idol. IMO these shows shouldn’t even show the bad singers. It’s just not entertaining at all. I want to see the people with actual talent not some doofus who simply wants to get on television even if it’s by making a fool of themselves.

r.d.d

make it short this show is just complete crap!!

tripp_ncwy

I can see Simon huddled with the producers doing some serious re-editing of future episodes is the negative press continues.

Miss Chaos

Some people really think they can sing. But the show editing personal know better and they should not be put on the stage. I guess fool Seemoon thinks weare entertained by that crap–not–

Dlynne

I changed the channel 45 minutes into the show. I haven’t done that in ten seasons of Idol. I don’t want to watch the idiots making fools of themselves – I never have. After seeing who the judges put through the last two nights, I don’t think they are truly interested in finding new talent. It seems to me that they are only interested in producing a show.

I’m over it. I’d rather watch some of the new scripted shows.

Sq

I always DVR reality shows – to skip the commercials and the “coming up/what we did 3 seconds ago” crap. Last night I started watching almost an hour in and within 10 minutes had caught up to real time – and I just realized I forgot to go back and watch the rest of the show… not a good sign.

I think unless/until it improves I’ll just stick to MJs recaps – then I can watch the decent auditions and avoid all the train wrecks.

When Idol started and the auditions all happened within a day or two it was OK to have the delisional singers on but at this point it is insulting for the show to pretend that the cattle call and the audience show are even remotely at the same time.

We know that all the bad auditions have already been passed and praised by 3 rounds of producers over a period of several months and I don’t like watching the shock when Simon and crew finally give these poor deludes souls some real feedback.

It’s not fair and it’s not ethical.

Could we not just cut the crap and have a show all about Simon instead? Heck it would be fun to watch him as he takes a relative unknown and builds them into a superstar.

karenc

I think what makes the bad singers being on worse is that it is in front of an audience. On idol, it’s only in front of the judges. Not in front of an audience of thousands.

ETA: By worse I mean overly dramatic, it heightens the drama of being selected or not to be in front of an audience.

Benji

Way back in the early days, the “humiliation episodes” were Idol’s main attraction for many people. Maybe they still are, idk. But (nearly) all formats wear out with exhaustive repetition. I think this particular gimmick should be trashed.

Elliegrll

@dizzyfeet I am just wondering how many people watched only a small part of the show? It was boring with 2 many bad singers. YAWN..

The funny thing is that a lot of people said the same thing about last year’s AI auditions that were held in LA. I think we only saw three or four people from that audition who weren’t joke contestants, but Nigel defended that episode.

I hope Nigel keeps the Vegas round, and shows more than one episode of it, because that was more entertaining than the early audition round.

Grammie Kari

I can see Simon huddled with the producers doing some serious re-editing of future episodes is the negative press continues.

I did suggest to Simon that he do this. In the mean time, I hope Nigel is paying attention.

That stunt with the guy pulling down his pants was the worse, disgusting audition I have ever seen. Is X-Factor that desperate for drama?

chessguy99

I have a gut feeling that next Thursday is going be like the “Best of the Rest” Idol audition episode from S9, and will be packed with many good auditions of contestants that will most likely make the live shows. The question is, how many people will not tune in next week after this weak episode?

lucy

I think when you hype something as much as Simon hyped this, it’s not surprising that critics and others expect to see something more and something new. When, instead, you get a revamp of some old, questionable stuff — such as tons of deluded auditioners whose whole auditions are shown and the phony factor, such as failure to level with the audience (as The Voice did) about the fact that show business is a place where talented people can deserve a comeback — you’re always going to get crap from critics, who tend to hope for new ideas. Whether you’ll turn off audiences at the same time, though, I’m not so sure.

And — a little off topic, but not too much, I hope — To the person who wanted to know in a now deep-sixed thread how I concluded that Stacey F was probably singing in New York in 2003: I was talking about this with a friend who’s involved with this set of productions. Scroll down to House of Flowers. “Stacy” is spelled differently, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same woman:

For the record, I don’t think any of this history reflects badly on Stacey at all, nor do i believe that she lied about it. I think the comments we heard were very very heavily edited,and I think she’s a talented woman who had a good career that ended too soon and maybe wasn’t exactly what she wanted and that she totally deserves a shot at a strong comeback as a different kind of performer. I do, however, blame Simon and company for not thinking the audience is smart enough to be able to embrace such complex stories — which are what show biz mostly has — and feeding us instead simplistic crap. Of course, Simon has always been about the simplistic. But I think that shows disrespect for both the audience and the contestants, really. If I were a critic, I’d suggest that maybe reality tv should have matured beyond this level by now.l

stargazed

Watching the first epi was enough for me. IMO, it’s a poorly done copycat of AI and AGT. AGT is made fun by Nick Cannon who is a talented host and softens the judges blows. But, the judges also make the show enjoyable.

AI has the beautiful and talented JLo, XF has the retread Pauler. No competition there.

The one compliment that I can give XF is the absence of Seacrest. That’s huge IMO.